J’ai peur de mon ombre

Details

Front cover

Translated Title: I'm afraid of my shadow

Pages: 12

Author: Tristan Lhomme

Artist: Vintage photographs and etchings, Loïc Muzy

Editor(s): Nicolas Impérial, Olivier Trocklé

Setting: France, 1880

Appears in: Les 5 supplices, Aventures dans l'Empire des Ombres

Campaign: Les 5 supplices

Summary

When a duel of honor turns fatal, the investigators must determine what nefarious power is behind the accidental death.

Spoilers - Keepers Eyes Only

Players should not read any further.

Synopsis

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
The young Marquis d'Anville has just broken his engagement to Louise de Gendron. The girl's brother, Charles, demands redress from the Marquis with a duel, which ends up killing d'Anville. Charles de Gendron claims his opponent threw himself on his sword. The investigators must find out what truly happened. They discover that d'Anville had an affair with Juliette Donat, the young wife of a middle-aged businessman with a bad reputation. D'Anville broke it off after three months, but Juliette Donat was still in love with him and jealous. The husband suspected the affair upon his return and confronted d'Anville, accusing him of being a sorcerer, alchemist, and practitioner of the occult based on knowledge of d'Anville's idle curiosity in such things. D'Anville began courting Louise de Gendron that autumn. When the Donats learn about the engagement, Juliette Donat searched through her husband's occult documents and found a translation of a Chinese curse that supposedly sends shadows to harangue one's enemies. Only half believing it, she performed the rite. D'Anville felt himself stalked by a shadow, turning him into an insomniac, haunted by an unknown evil. Not wanting to condemn his fiancée to a life of suffering next to a wrecked man, he broke things off with her. During the duel, the shadow forced him to take a step too far to the side, turning a minor scratch into a deathblow. Once the investigators realize this, they must stop the cursed shadow, which is still at large. Even worse, Madame Donat has relaunched the curse, this time on her own husband.

Locations:

• Paris, France
• Normandy, France
  • Anville
  • Sainte-Marguerite

Creatures:

• Shadow

Tomes and Artifacts:

Campaigns / Scenarios: Les 5 supplices

Comments

The scenario takes place in the 1880s, fifty years before the main campaign story of Les 5 supplices. Another scenario in the same book, "Treize à table," takes place forty years later and is a direct sequel of "J'ai peur de mon ombre."